legal advice

[rusty@saving]

hey all,

i know that this is not a legal advice sight, but i had a question that someone might be able to answer.
My wife has had a lot of dental work done all her life. she wore braces for 10 years, and she has TMJ.
now that she is 24, she is experiencing problems again and needing to get problems fixed to the tune of $8,000-$10,000. insurance will not cover the initial $5,000 for braces and retainer and widener(something like that), but will cover $17,000 worth of the $20,000 surgery she needs in 1 1/2 years.

the orthodontist she saw as a kid has had several malpractice suits in the past, and has pretty much proven he doesn't practice good dental work. it has been 5 years since her treatment stopped from him, and i had heard that treatment had to be within 2 years in the state of Illinois for a law suit to stand up in court.
it isn't like we want a million dollars, but this will take years to pay off, and if it could have been taken care of before, then he is liable. we just want payment for correction of the problem(and give her some releif!!)and lawyer costs and be done with it.

anyone have any advice????

[JanH]

Maybe your dental insurance people can give you some guidelines? As the daughter of someone who's had a lot of dental problems, I understand how uncomfortable she can be sometimes. I hope you can get it resolved soon for her. Good luck!

[s.saver]

You should be able to call a lawyer and ask...Many times asking a question over the phone is free if they think they might get a new client over it.

[LuxLiving]

Most local bar associations have a free hotline of some type that you can get a free short consult thru.

Good luck getting her some relief - both medically and financially!

[vsjhoc]

Good suggestion about calling the state bar association. Your county bar association may also provide legal assistance.

Your issue is whether the statute of limitations has expired for making a claim against orthodontist #1. You'll need to ask a lawyer when the cause of action arose -- it might not be 5 years ago when he stopped treatment. It might be when you first discovered there was a problem with her prior treatment. Ask a lawyer right away, before more time elapses.

As an aside, I had orthognathic (jaw) surgery a few years ago -- sounds like what she will have. Make sure you get a second and third opinion. This is major surgery with a looooooong recovery time. It was extraordinarily unpleasant and had some permanent side effects. It was a few years before I could say it was worth it.